Gao Fu (; born 15 November 1961), also known as George Fu Gao, is a Chinese

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their ...

and immunologist. He has served as Director of the

Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC; ) is an institution directly under the National Health Commission, based in Changping District, Beijing, China. Established in 1983, it works to protect public health and safety ...

from August 2017 to July 2022 and Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS; ) is a public university for graduate education, under the direct leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The predecessors of UCAS are the Graduate University of the Chinese ...

since 2015. Gao is an academician of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

and

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...

, as well as a foreign associate of the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

and the US

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

. He was awarded the

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...

in Medical Science in 2012 and the

Nikkei Asia Prize The Nikkei Asia Prize (Japanese: 日経アジア賞) is an award which recognizes the achievements of people and organizations that have improved the lives of people throughout Asia. The awards were created and presented by Nikkei Inc, one of the l ...

in 2014.

Early life and education

Gao was born in

Ying County Ying County or Yingxian () is a county in the north of Shanxi province, China. It is the easternmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Shuozhou. Ying County is best known for the Pagoda of Fogong Temple, which is built in 1056 ...

Shuozhou Shuozhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the northwest. It is situated along the upper reaches of the Fen River. The prefecture as a whole has an area of about and, in 2010, a popu ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

province in 1961. He entered

Shanxi Agricultural University Shanxi Agricultural University (山西农业大学) is a university in Shanxi, China under the authority of the provincial government. It is in the city of Taigu (太谷), a rural area with a population of about 40,000 people. History The sch ...

and was assigned to study

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

even though he did not want to be a veterinarian. After graduating in 1983, he entered the graduate school of

Beijing Agricultural University China Agricultural University (CAU, ; abbreviated as 农大) is a public research university in Beijing, People's Republic of China specializing in agriculture, biology, engineering, veterinary medicine, economics, management, humanities and soc ...

, where he earned a master's degree in

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

and

veterinary epidemiology Epizootiology, epizoology, or veterinary epidemiology is the study of disease patterns within animal populations. See also * Epizootic * Epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns an ...

in 1986. This enabled him to change his career direction to infectious disease research, and he joined the faculty of the university as a teaching assistant and later lecturer in

virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

Education and career abroad

In 1991, Gao went to the United Kingdom to study at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1994 under the supervision of David H. L. Bishop and Ernest A. Gould. After a three-month stint at the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

in Canada, he returned to Oxford as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

, working under John I. Bell,

Andrew McMichael Sir Andrew James McMichael, (born 8 November 1943) is an immunologist, Professor of Molecular Medicine, and previously Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford. He is particularly known for his wor ...

and Bent K. Jakobsen. In 1999, Gao moved to

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

as a Wellcome Trust International Travelling Fellow and conducted research under

Don Craig Wiley Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

and

Stephen C. Harrison Stephen C. Harrison is professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, professor of pediatrics, and director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Dynamics of Harvard Medical School, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Medicine ...

until 2001. From 2001 to 2004, Gao taught at Oxford University, serving as a lecturer, doctoral supervisor, and group leader.

Career in China

After 13 years abroad, Gao returned to China in 2004 to serve as Professor and Director of the Institute of Microbiology,

(CAS). In 2008 he was appointed Vice President of Beijing Institutes of Life Science and Director of the National Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microorganism and Immunology of the CAS. He has also been an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

at Oxford since 2010. Gao was appointed Deputy Director of the

in April 2011. He was promoted to Director in August 2017, succeeding Wang Yu (王宇). In 2015, Gao was appointed Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the

. He also serves as Vice President of the

National Natural Science Foundation of China The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; ) is an organization directly affiliated to China's State Council for the management of the National Natural Science Fund. History NSFC was founded in February 1986 by theoretical chemist Tan ...

. In 2020, Gao contributed to research on

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

Other activities

Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) is a global health non-profit based in Geneva, Switzerland. FIND functions as a product development partnership, engaging in active collaboration with over 150 partners to facilitate the develo ...

(FIND), Member of the Board of Directors *

, Vice President

Contributions

Gao's main research focus is on the mechanism of

viral entry Viral entry is the earliest stage of infection in the viral life cycle, as the virus comes into contact with the host cell (biology), cell and introduces viral material into the cell. The major steps involved in viral entry are shown below. Desp ...

and release, especially the

cross-species transmission Cross-species transmission (CST), also called interspecies transmission, host jump, or spillover, is the transmission of an infectious pathogen, such as a virus, between hosts belonging to different species. Once introduced into an individual of a ...

(host jump) of the

influenza virus ''Orthomyxoviridae'' (from Greek ὀρθός, ''orthós'' 'straight' + μύξα, ''mýxa'' 'mucus') is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses. It includes seven genera: ''Alphainfluenzavirus'', ''Betainfluenzavirus'', '' Gammainfluenzavirus'', ...

. He also studies viral ecology, including the ecology of the flu virus in migratory birds and poultry markets. He was the first to describe the cross-species transmission mechanism of the

H5N1 Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus which can cause illness in humans and many other animal species. A bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of typ ...

avian flu virus. Gao's research also involves public and global health policy. During the peak of the

2014 Ebola outbreak Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrele ...

, he spent two months leading the China Mobile Test Laboratory in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

from September to November, playing a role that is described by the US

as "heroic" in fighting the epidemic. As of 2019, Gao has published 20 books or book chapters and over 500 peer-reviewed research papers, including those on newly discovered pathogenic viruses such as the

SARS virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''sever ...

and the

H7N9 Influenza A virus subtype H7N9 (A/H7N9) is a bird flu strain of the species Influenza virus A (avian influenza virus or bird flu virus). Avian influenza A H7 viruses normally circulate amongst avian populations with some variants known to occ ...

avian flu virus.

Honours and recognition

in Medical Science, 2012 *Academician of the

(CAS), December 2013 *Fellow of

(TWAS), 2014 *

, 2014 *Fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

(AAM), 2015 *Foreign member of the

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

(EMBO), 2016 *Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS), 2016 *National Award for Distinguished Scientist, 2016 *

State Science and Technology Progress Award The State Science and Technology Prizes () are the highest honors conferred by the national government of the People's Republic of China in science and technology, in order to recognize citizens and organizations who have made remarkable contribut ...

, 2017 *National Innovation Award, 2017 *Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

(RSE), 2017 *Fellow of the

African Academy of Sciences The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit, pan-African learned society formed in 1985. The AAS elects fellows ( FAAS) and affiliates. The AAS also awards the Obasanjo Prize for Scientific Discovery and ...

(AAS), 2017 *Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, 2018 *Foreign associate of the US

, 2019 *Foreign associate of the US

, October 2019 *Member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

, 2020

References

External links

Biography of George Fu Gao
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gao, George Fu 1961 births Living people Academics of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Oxford Biologists from Shanxi China Agricultural University alumni Chinese expatriates in England Chinese expatriates in the United States Chinese immunologists Chinese virologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Harvard Medical School faculty Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Members of the National Academy of Medicine People from Ying County Shanxi Agricultural University alumni TWAS fellows TWAS laureates Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Coronavirus researchers Winners of the Nikkei Asia Prize Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Associate Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences